Skip to main content

Source Address Validation in Inter-domain Networks Gap Analysis, Problem Statement, and Requirements
draft-ietf-savnet-inter-domain-problem-statement-05

Document Type Active Internet-Draft (savnet WG)
Authors Dan Li , Jianping Wu , Libin Liu , Mingqing(Michael) Huang , Kotikalapudi Sriram
Last updated 2024-09-08
Replaces draft-wu-savnet-inter-domain-problem-statement
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Intended RFC status (None)
Formats
Additional resources Mailing list discussion
Stream WG state WG Document
Document shepherd (None)
IESG IESG state I-D Exists
Consensus boilerplate Unknown
Telechat date (None)
Responsible AD (None)
Send notices to (None)
draft-ietf-savnet-inter-domain-problem-statement-05
Internet Engineering Task Force                                    D. Li
Internet-Draft                                                     J. Wu
Intended status: Informational                       Tsinghua University
Expires: 13 March 2025                                            L. Liu
                                                                M. Huang
                                                 Zhongguancun Laboratory
                                                               K. Sriram
                                                                USA NIST
                                                        9 September 2024

Source Address Validation in Inter-domain Networks Gap Analysis, Problem
                      Statement, and Requirements
          draft-ietf-savnet-inter-domain-problem-statement-05

Abstract

   This document provides the gap analysis of existing inter-domain
   source address validation mechanisms, describes the fundamental
   problems, and defines the requirements for technical improvements.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 13 March 2025.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2024 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  Existing Inter-domain SAV Mechanisms  . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   4.  Gap Analysis  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.1.  SAV at Customer Interfaces  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       4.1.1.  Limited Propagation of Prefixes . . . . . . . . . . .  10
       4.1.2.  Hidden Prefixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
       4.1.3.  Reflection Attacks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
       4.1.4.  Direct Attacks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     4.2.  SAV at Provider/Peer Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
       4.2.1.  Reflection Attacks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
       4.2.2.  Direct Attacks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
   5.  Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   6.  Requirements for New Inter-domain SAV Mechanisms  . . . . . .  22
     6.1.  Accurate Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
       6.1.1.  Improving Validation Accuracy over Existing
               Mechanisms  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
       6.1.2.  Working in Incremental/Partial Deployment . . . . . .  24
       6.1.3.  Providing Necessary Security Guarantee  . . . . . . .  25
     6.2.  Automatic Update  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
       6.2.1.  Reducing Operational Overhead . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
       6.2.2.  Guaranteeing Convergence  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
   7.  Inter-domain SAV Scope  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
   8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
   9.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
   10. Contributors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
   11. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
     11.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
     11.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
   Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28

1.  Introduction

   Source address validation (SAV) is crucial for protecting networks
   from source address spoofing attacks.  The MANRS initiative advocates
   deploying SAV as close to the source as possible [manrs], and access
   networks are the first line of defense against source address
   spoofing.  However, access networks face various challenges in
   deploying SAV mechanisms due to different network environments,
   router vendors, and operational preferences.  Hence, it is not

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   feasible to deploy SAV at every network edge.  Additional SAV
   mechanisms are needed at other levels of the network to prevent
   source address spoofing along the forwarding paths of the spoofed
   packets.  The Source Address Validation Architecture (SAVA) [RFC5210]
   proposes a multi-fence approach that implements SAV at three levels
   of the network: access, intra-domain, and inter-domain.

   If a spoofing packet is not blocked at the originating access
   network, intra-domain and inter-domain SAV mechanisms can help block
   the packet along its forwarding path.  As analyzed in
   [intra-domain-ps], intra-domain SAV for an AS can prevent a subnet of
   the AS from spoofing the addresses of other subnets as well as
   prevent incoming traffic to the AS from spoofing the addresses of the
   AS, without relying on the collaboration of other ASes.  As
   complementary, in scenarios where intra-domain SAV cannot work,
   inter-domain SAV leverages the collaboration among ASes to help block
   incoming spoofing packets in an AS which spoof the source addresses
   of other ASes.  It is noteworthy that scenarios where intra-domain
   SAV cannot work may consist of three cases: (1) the AS whose prefixes
   are being spoofed does not have intra-domain SAV deployed, (2) an AS
   requires the ASes near the spoofing attack source to filter the
   spoofed traffic, and (3) an AS whose source prefixes are spoofed may
   not be in the path of the spoofing traffic.

   This document provides an analysis of inter-domain SAV.  Figure 1
   illustrates an example for inter-domain SAV.  P1 is the source prefix
   of AS 1, and AS 4 sends spoofing packets with P1 as source addresses
   to AS 3 through AS 2.  Assume AS 4 does not deploy intra-domain SAV,
   these spoofing packets cannot be blocked by AS 4.  Although AS 1 can
   deploy intra-domain SAV to block incoming packets which spoof the
   addresses of AS 1, these spoofing traffic from AS 4 to AS 3 do not go
   through AS 1, so they cannot be blocked by AS 1.  Inter-domain SAV
   can help in this scenario.  If AS 1 and AS 2 deploy inter-domain SAV,
   AS 2 knows the correct incoming interface of packets with P1 as
   source addresses, and the spoofing packets can thus be blocked by AS
   2 since they come from the incorrect interface.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                 [Page 3]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

 +------------+
 |  AS 1(P1)  #
 +------------+ \
                 \            Spoofed Packets
               +-+#+--------+ with Source Addresses in P1 +------------+
               |    AS 2    #-----------------------------#    AS 4    |
               +-+#+--------+                             +------------+
                 /
 +------------+ /
 |    AS 3    #
 +------------+
 AS 4 sends spoofed packets with source addresses in P1 to AS 3
 through AS 2.
 If AS 1 and AS 2 deploy inter-domain SAV, the spoofed packets
 can be blocked at AS 2.

        Figure 1: An example for illustrating inter-domain SAV.

   There are many existing mechanisms for inter-domain SAV.  This
   document analyzes them and attempts to answer: i) what are the
   technical gaps (Section 4), ii) what are the fundamental problems
   (Section 5), and iii) what are the practical requirements for the
   solution of these problems (Section 6).

1.1.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
   BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

2.  Terminology

   SAV Rule:
      The rule that indicates the validity of a specific source IP
      address or source IP prefix.

   Improper Block:
      The validation results that the packets with legitimate source
      addresses are blocked improperly due to inaccurate SAV rules.

   Improper Permit:
      The validation results that the packets with spoofed source
      addresses are permitted improperly due to inaccurate SAV rules.

   Real forwading paths:

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                 [Page 4]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

      The paths that the legitimate traffic goes through in the data
      plane.

3.  Existing Inter-domain SAV Mechanisms

   Inter-domain SAV is typically performed at the AS level and can be
   deployed at AS border routers (ASBRs) to prevent source address
   spoofing.  There are various mechanisms available to implement inter-
   domain SAV for anti-spoofing ingress filtering [manrs] [isoc], which
   are reviewed in this section.

   *  ACL-based ingress filtering [RFC2827] [RFC3704]: ACL-based ingress
      filtering is a technique that relies on ACL rules to filter
      packets based on their source addresses.  It can be applied at
      provider interfaces, peer interfaces, or customer interfaces of an
      AS, and is recommended to deploy at provider interfaces or
      customer interfaces [manrs] [nist].  At the provider interfaces,
      ACL-based ingress filtering can block source prefixes that are
      clearly invalid in the inter-domain routing context, such as
      suballocated or internal-only prefixes of customer ASes [nist].
      At the customer interfaces, ACL-based ingress filtering can
      prevent customer ASes from spoofing source addresses of other ASes
      that are not reachable via the provider AS.  It can be implemented
      at border routers or aggregation routers if border ACLs are not
      feasible [manrs].  However, ACL-based ingress filtering introduces
      significant operational overhead, as ACL rules need to be updated
      in a timely manner to reflect prefix or routing changes in the
      inter-domain routing system, which requires manual configuration
      to avoid improper block or improper permit.

   *  uRPF-based machanisms: A class of SAV mechanisms are based on
      Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (uRPF) [RFC3704].  The core idea
      of uRPF for SAV is to exploit the symmetry of inter-domain
      routing: in many cases, the best next hop for a destination is
      also the best previous hop for the source.  In other words, if a
      packet arrives from a certain interface, the source address of
      that packet should be reachable via the same interface, according
      to the FIB.  However, symmetry in routing does not always holds in
      practice, and to address cases where it does not hold, many
      enhancements and modes of uRPF are proposed.  Different modes of
      uRPF have different levels of strictness and flexibility, and
      network operators can choose from them to suit particular network
      scenarios.  We describe these modes as follows:

      -  Strict uRPF [RFC3704]: Strict uRPF is the most stringent mode,
         and it only permits packets that have a source address that is
         covered by a prefix in the FIB, and that the next hop for that
         prefix is the same as the incoming interface.  This mode is

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                 [Page 5]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

         recommended for deployment at customer interfaces that directly
         connect to an AS with suballocated address space, as it can
         prevent spoofing attacks from that AS or its downstream ASes
         [nist].

      -  Loose uRPF [RFC3704]: Loose uRPF verifies that the source
         address of the packet is routable in the Internet by matching
         it with one or more prefixes in the FIB, regardless of which
         interface the packet arrives at.  If the source address is not
         routable, Loose uRPF discards the packet.  Loose uRPF is
         typically deployed at the provider interfaces of an AS to block
         packets with source addresses that are obviously disallowed,
         such as non-global prefixes (e.g., private addresses, multicast
         addresses, etc.) or the prefixes that belong to the customer AS
         itself [nist].

      -  FP-uRPF [RFC3704]: FP-uRPF maintains a reverse path forwarding
         (RPF) list, which contains the prefixes and all their
         permissible routes including the optimal and alternative ones.
         It permits an incoming packet only if the packet's source
         address is encompassed in the prefixes of the RPF list and its
         incoming interface is included in the permissible routes of the
         corresponding prefix.  FP-uRPF is recommended to be deployed at
         customer interfaces or peer interfaces, especially those that
         are connected to multi-homed customer ASes [nist].

      -  Virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) uRPF [RFC4364] [urpf]: VRF
         uRPF uses a separate VRF table for each external BGP peer.  A
         VRF table is a table that contains the prefixes and the routes
         that are advertised by a specific peer.  VRF uRPF checks the
         source address of an incoming packet from an external BGP peer
         against the VRF table for that peer.  If the source address
         matches one of the prefixes in the VRF table, VRF uRPF allows
         the packet to pass.  Otherwise, it drops the packet.  VRF uRPF
         can also be used as a way to implement BCP38 [RFC2827], which
         is a set of recommendations to prevent IP spoofing.  However,
         the operational feasibility of VRF uRPF as BCP38 has not been
         proven [manrs].

      -  EFP-uRPF [RFC8704]: EFP-uRPF consists of two algorithms,
         algorithm A and algorithm B.  EFP-uRPF is based on the idea
         that an AS can receive BGP updates for multiple prefixes that
         have the same origin AS at different interfaces.  For example,
         this can happen when the origin AS is multi-homed and
         advertises the same prefixes to different providers.  In this
         case, EFP-uRPF allows an incoming packet with a source address
         in any of those prefixes to pass on any of those interfaces.
         This way, EFP-uRPF can handle asymmetric routing scenarios

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                 [Page 6]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

         where the incoming and outgoing interfaces for a packet are
         different.  EFP-uRPF has not been implemented in practical
         networks yet, but BCP84 [RFC3704] [RFC8704] suggests using EFP-
         uRPF with algorithm B at customer interfaces of an AS.  EFP-
         uRPF can also be used at peer interfaces of an AS.

   *  Source-based remote triggered black hole (RTBH) filtering
      [RFC5635]: Source-based RTBH filtering enables the targeted
      dropping of traffic by specifying particular source addresses or
      address ranges.  Source-based RTBH filtering uses uRPF, usually
      Loose uRPF, to check the source address of an incoming packet
      against the FIB.  If the source address of the packet does not
      match or is not covered by any prefix in the FIB, or if the route
      for that prefix points to a black hole (i.e., Null0), Loose uRPF
      discards the packet.  This way, source-based RTBH filtering can
      filter out attack traffic at specific devices (e.g., ASBR) in an
      AS based on source addresses, and improve the security of the
      network.

   *  Carrier Grade NAT (CGN): CGN is a network technology used by
      service providers to translate between private and public IPv4
      addresses within their network.  CGN enables service providers to
      assign private IPv4 addresses to their customer ASes instead of
      public, globally unique IPv4 addresses.  The private side of the
      CGN faces the customer ASes, and when an incoming packet is
      received from a customer AS, CGN checks its source address.  If
      the source address is included in the address list of the CGN's
      private side, CGN performs address translation.  Otherwise, it
      forwards the packet without translation.  However, since CGN
      cannot determine whether the source address of an incoming packet
      is spoofed or not, additional SAV mechanisms need to be
      implemented to prevent source address spoofing [manrs].

   *  BGP origin validation (BGP-OV) [RFC6811]: Attackers can bypass
      uRPF-based SAV mechanisms by using prefix hijacking in combination
      with source address spoofing.  By announcing a less-specific
      prefix that does not have a legitimate announcement, the attacker
      can deceive existing uRPF-based SAV mechanisms and successfully
      perform address spoofing.  To protect against this type of attack,
      a combination of BGP-OV and uRPF-based mechanisms like FP-uRPF or
      EFP-uRPF is recommended [nist].  BGP routers can use ROA
      information, which is a validated list of {prefix, maximum length,
      origin AS}, to mitigate the risk of prefix hijacks in advertised
      routes.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                 [Page 7]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

4.  Gap Analysis

   Inter-domain SAV is essential in preventing source address spoofing
   attacks across all AS interfaces, including those of customers,
   providers, and peers.  An ideal inter-domain SAV mechanism SHOULD
   block all spoofing traffic while permitting legitimate traffic in all
   scenarios.  However, in some cases, existing SAV mechanisms may
   unintentionally block legitimate traffic or permit spoofing traffic.
   This section aims to conduct a gap analysis of existing SAV
   mechanisms used in the corresponding interfaces of these scenarios to
   identify their technical limitations.

4.1.  SAV at Customer Interfaces

   SAV is used at customer interfaces to validate traffic from the
   customer cone, including both legitimate traffic and spoofing
   traffic.  To prevent the source address spoofing, operators can
   enable ACL-based ingress filtering, source-based RTBH filtering, and/
   or uRPF-based mechanisms at customer interfaces, namely Strict uRPF,
   FP-uRPF, VRF uRPF, or EFP-uRPF.  However, uRPF-based mechanisms may
   cause improper block problems in two inter-domain scenarios: limited
   propagation of prefixes and hidden prefixes, or may cause improper
   permit problems in the scenarios of source address spoofing attacks
   within a customer cone, while ACL-based ingress filtering and source-
   based RTBH filtering need to update SAV rules in a timely manner and
   lead to high operational overhead.  For brevity, we will analyze ACL-
   based ingress filtering and source-based RTBH filtering in detail
   using the concrete cases in Section 4.2.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                 [Page 8]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

+-------------------+------------+-----------+-------+--------+--------+
|Traffic & Scenarios|ACL & S/RTBH|Strict uRPF|FP-uRPF|VRF uRPF|EFP-uRPF|
+----------+--------+------------+-----------+-------+--------+--------+
|Legitimate|  LPP   |            |                                     |
|Traffic   +--------+            |            Improper Block           |
|          |   HP   |    High    |                                     |
+----------+--------+Operational +----------------------------+--------+
|Spoofing  |  RAC   |  Overhead  |                            |Improper|
|Traffic   +--------+            |   Functioning as Expected  |Permit  |
|          |  DAC   |            |                            |        |
+----------+--------+------------+----------------------------+--------+
S/RTBH: Source-based RTBH filtering.
"LPP" represents a class of scenario called limited propagation of
prefixes.
"HP" represents a calss of scenario called hidden prefixes.
"RAC" represents a class of scenario called reflection attacks by source
address spoofing within a customer cone.
"DAC" represents a class of scenario called direct attacks by source
address spoofing within a customer cone.
"Functioning as Expected" represents the inter-domain SAV mechanism
does not cause improper block for legitimate traffic or improper
permit for spoofing traffic in the corresponding scenarios, and has
low operational overhead.

   Figure 2: The gaps of ACL-based ingress filtering, source-based
   RTBH filtering, Strict uRPF, FP-uRPF, VRF uRPF, and EFP-uRPF in
                    the corrresponding scenarios.

   Figure 2 provides an overview of the gaps associated with ACL-based
   ingress filtering, source-based RTBH filtering, Strict uRPF, FP-uRPF,
   VRF uRPF, and EFP-uRPF for SAV at customer interfaces in the
   corresponding scenarios.  Both ACL-based ingress filtering and
   source-based RTBH filtering have high operational overhead as
   performing SAV at provider/peer interfaces.  Strict uRPF, FP-uRPF,
   VRF uRPF, and EFP-uRPF, on the other hand, may incorrectly block
   legitimate traffic in the scenarios of limited propagation of
   prefixes or hidden prefixes.  Furthermore, in scenarios of source
   address spoofing attacks within a customer cone, EFP-uRPF may
   inadvertently permit spoofing traffic.

   In the following, we analyze the gaps of Strict uRPF, FP-uRPF, VRF
   uRPF, and EFP-uRPF for SAV at customer interfaces in scenarios of
   limited propagation of prefixes and hidden prefixes, respectively.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                 [Page 9]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

4.1.1.  Limited Propagation of Prefixes

   In inter-domain networks, some prefixes may not be propagated to all
   domains due to various factors, such as NO_EXPORT or NO_ADVERTISE
   communities or other route filtering policies.  This may cause
   asymmetric routing in the inter-domain context, which may lead to
   false positives when performing SAV with existing mechanisms.  These
   mechanisms include EFP-uRPF, which we focus on in the following
   analysis, as well as Strict uRPF, FP-uRPF, and VRF uRPF.  All these
   mechanisms suffer from the same problem of improper block in this
   scenario.

                             +----------------+
                             |    AS 3(P3)    |
                             +-+/\------+/\+--+
                                /         \
                               /           \
                              /             \
                             / (C2P)         \
                    +------------------+      \
                    |     AS 4(P4)     |       \
                    ++/\+--+/\+----+/\++        \
                      /     |        \           \
            P2[AS 2] /      |         \           \
                    /       |          \           \
                   / (C2P)  |           \ P5[AS 5]  \ P5[AS 5]
   +----------------+       |            \           \
   |    AS 2(P2)    |       | P1[AS 1]    \           \
   +----------+/\+--+       | P6[AS 1]     \           \
                \           | NO_EXPORT     \           \
        P1[AS 1] \          |                \           \
        NO_EXPORT \         |                 \           \
                   \ (C2P)  | (C2P/P2P)  (C2P) \     (C2P) \
                 +----------------+          +----------------+
                 |  AS 1(P1, P6)  |          |    AS 5(P5)    |
                 +----------------+          +----------------+

       Figure 3: Limited propagation of prefixes caused by NO_EXPORT.

   Figure 3 presents a scenario where the limited propagation of
   prefixes occurs due to the NO_EXPORT community attribute.  In this
   scenario, AS 1 is a customer of AS 2, AS 2 is a customer of AS 4, AS
   4 is a customer of AS 3, and AS 5 is a customer of both AS 3 and AS
   4.  The relationship between AS 1 and AS 4 can be either customer-to-
   provider (C2P) or peer-to-peer (P2P).  AS 1 advertises prefixes P1 to
   AS 2 and adds the NO_EXPORT community attribute to the BGP
   advertisement sent to AS 2, preventing AS 2 from further propagating
   the route for prefix P1 to AS 4.  Similarly, AS 1 adds the NO_EXPORT

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 10]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   community attribute to the BGP advertisement sent to AS 4, resulting
   in AS 4 not propagating the route for prefix P6 to AS 3.
   Consequently, AS 4 only learns the route for prefix P1 from AS 1 in
   this scenario.  Suppose AS 1 and AS 4 have deployed inter-domain SAV
   while other ASes have not, and AS 4 has deployed EFP-uRPF at its
   customer interfaces.

   Assuming that AS 1 is the customer of AS 4, if AS 4 deploys EFP-uRPF
   with algorithm A at customer interfaces, it will require packets with
   source addresses in P1 to only arrive from AS 1.  When AS 1 sends
   legitimate packets with source addresses in P1 to AS 4 through AS 2,
   AS 4 improperly blocks these packets.  The same problem applies to
   Strict uRPF, FP-uRPF, and VRF uRPF.  Although EFP-uRPF with algorithm
   B can avoid improper block in this case, network operators need to
   first determine whether limited prefix propagation exists before
   choosing the suitable EFP-uRPF algorithms, which adds more complexity
   and overhead to network operators.  Furthermore, EFP-uRPF with
   algorithm B is not without its problems.  For example, if AS 1 is the
   peer of AS 4, AS 4 will not learn the route of P1 from its customer
   interfaces.  In such case, both EFP-uRPF with algorithm A and
   algorithm B have improper block problems.

4.1.2.  Hidden Prefixes

   Some servers' source addresses are not advertised through BGP to
   other ASes.  These addresses are unknown to the inter-domain routing
   system and are called hidden prefixes.  Legitimate traffic with these
   hidden prefixes may be dropped by existing inter-domain SAV
   mechanisms, such as Strict uRPF, FP-uRPF, VRF uRPF, or EFP-uRPF,
   because they do not match any known prefix.

   For example, Content Delivery Networks (CDN) use anycast [RFC4786]
   [RFC7094] to improve the quality of service by bringing content
   closer to users.  An anycast IP address is assigned to devices in
   different locations, and incoming requests are routed to the closest
   location.  Usually, only locations with multiple connectivity
   announce the anycast IP address through BGP.  The CDN server receives
   requests from users and creates tunnels to the edge locations, where
   content is sent directly to users using direct server return (DSR).
   DSR requires servers in the edge locations to use the anycast IP
   address as the source address in response packets.  However, these
   edge locations do not announce the anycast prefixes through BGP, so
   an intermediate AS with existing inter-domain SAV mechanisms may
   improperly block these response packets.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 11]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

                                   +----------------+
                   Anycast Server+-+    AS 3(P3)    |
                                   +-+/\----+/\+----+
                                      /       \
                            P3[AS 3] /         \ P3[AS 3]
                                    /           \
                                   / (C2P)       \
                          +----------------+      \
                          |    AS 4(P4)    |       \
                          ++/\+--+/\+--+/\++        \
             P6[AS 1, AS 2] /     |      \           \
                  P2[AS 2] /      |       \           \
                          /       |        \           \
                         / (C2P)  |         \ P5[AS 5]  \ P5[AS 5]
         +----------------+       |          \           \
   User+-+    AS 2(P2)    |       | P1[AS 1]  \           \
         +----------+/\+--+       | P6[AS 1]   \           \
             P6[AS 1] \           | NO_EXPORT   \           \
              P1[AS 1] \          |              \           \
              NO_EXPORT \         |               \           \
                         \ (C2P)  | (C2P)    (C2P) \     (C2P) \
                       +----------------+        +----------------+
          Edge Server+-+  AS 1(P1, P6)  |        |    AS 5(P5)    |
                       +----------------+        +----------------+
   P3 is the anycast prefix and is only advertised by AS 3 through BGP.

              Figure 4: A Direct Server Return (DSR) scenario.

   Figure 4 illustrates a DSR scenario where the anycast IP prefix P3 is
   only advertised by AS 3 through BGP.  In this example, AS 3 is the
   provider of AS 4 and AS 5, AS 4 is the provider of AS 1, AS 2, and AS
   5, and AS 2 is the provider of AS 1.  AS 1 and AS 4 have deployed
   inter-domain SAV, while other ASes have not.  When users in AS 2 send
   requests to the anycast destination IP, the forwarding path is AS
   2->AS 4->AS 3.  The anycast servers in AS 3 receive the requests and
   tunnel them to the edge servers in AS 1.  Finally, the edge servers
   send the content to the users with source addresses in prefix P3.
   The reverse forwarding path is AS 1->AS 4->AS 2.  Since AS 4 does not
   receive routing information for prefix P3 from AS 1, EFP-uRPF with
   algorithm A/B, and all other existing uRPF-based mechanisms at the
   customer interface of AS 4 facing AS 1 will improperly block the
   legitimate response packets from AS 1.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 12]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   Moreover, it is worth mentioning that EFP-uRPF with algorithm A/B may
   also permit spoofing traffic improperly in scenarios where source
   address spoofing attacks within a customer cone occur.  We provide
   illustrations of these scenarios in the following.  The source
   address spoofing attacks within a customer cone include reflection
   attacks within a customer cone (Section 4.1.3) and direct attacks
   within a customer cone (Section 4.1.4).

4.1.3.  Reflection Attacks

   Figure 5 depicts the scenario of reflection attacks by source address
   spoofing within a customer cone and is used to analyze the gaps of
   uRPF-based mechanisms below.

                                        +----------------+
                                        |    AS 3(P3)    |
                                        +-+/\----+/\+----+
                                           /       \
                                          /         \
                                         /           \
                                        / (C2P)       \
                               +----------------+      \
                               |    AS 4(P4)    |       \
                               ++/\+--+/\+--+/\++        \
                  P6[AS 1, AS 2] /     |      \           \
                       P2[AS 2] /      |       \           \
                               /       |        \           \
                              / (C2P)  |         \ P5[AS 5]  \ P5[AS 5]
              +----------------+       |          \           \
Attacker(P1')-+    AS 2(P2)    |       | P1[AS 1]  \           \
              +----------+/\+--+       | P6[AS 1]   \           \
                  P6[AS 1] \           | NO_EXPORT   \           \
                   P1[AS 1] \          |              \           \
                   NO_EXPORT \         |               \           \
                              \ (C2P)  | (C2P)    (C2P) \     (C2P) \
                          +----------------+          +----------------+
                  Victim+-+  AS 1(P1, P6)  |  Server+-+    AS 5(P5)    |
                          +----------------+          +----------------+
P1' is the spoofed source prefix P1 by the attacker which is inside of
AS 2 or connected to AS 2 through other ASes.

     Figure 5: A scenario of reflection attacks by source address
                   spoofing within a customer cone.

   In Figure 5, the reflection attack by source address spoofing takes
   place within AS 4's customer cone, where the attacker spoofs the
   victim's IP address (P1) and sends requests to servers' IP address
   (P5) that are designed to respond to such requests.  As a result, the

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 13]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   server sends overwhelming responses back to the victim, thereby
   exhausting its network resources.  The arrows in Figure 5 illustrate
   the commercial relationships between ASes.  AS 3 serves as the
   provider for AS 4 and AS 5, while AS 4 acts as the provider for AS 1,
   AS 2, and AS 5.  Additionally, AS 2 is the provider for AS 1.
   Suppose AS 1 and AS 4 have deployed inter-domain SAV, while the other
   ASes have not.

   If AS 4 deploys EFP-uRPF with algorithm A/B at its customer
   interfaces, it will allow packets with source addresses in P1 to
   originate from AS 1 and AS 2.  Consequently, when AS 2 sends spoofing
   packets with source addresses in P1 to AS 4, AS 4 will improperly
   permit these packets, thus enabling the spoofing attacks to
   propagate.

   In scenarios like these, Strict uRPF, FP-uRPF, and VRF uRPF do not
   suffer from improper permit problems.  This is because these
   mechanisms enforce strict filtering rules that ensure packets with
   source addresses in P1 are only allowed to arrive from AS 1.

4.1.4.  Direct Attacks

   Figure 6 portrays a scenario of direct attacks by source address
   spoofing within a customer cone and is used to analyze the gaps of
   uRPF-based mechanisms below.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 14]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

                                        +----------------+
                                        |    AS 3(P3)    |
                                        +-+/\----+/\+----+
                                           /       \
                                          /         \
                                         /           \
                                        / (C2P)       \
                               +----------------+      \
                               |    AS 4(P4)    |       \
                               ++/\+--+/\+--+/\++        \
                  P6[AS 1, AS 2] /     |      \           \
                       P2[AS 2] /      |       \           \
                               /       |        \           \
                              / (C2P)  |         \ P5[AS 5]  \ P5[AS 5]
              +----------------+       |          \           \
Attacker(P5')-+    AS 2(P2)    |       | P1[AS 1]  \           \
              +----------+/\+--+       | P6[AS 1]   \           \
                  P6[AS 1] \           | NO_EXPORT   \           \
                   P1[AS 1] \          |              \           \
                   NO_EXPORT \         |               \           \
                              \ (C2P)  | (C2P)    (C2P) \     (C2P) \
                            +----------------+        +----------------+
                    Victim+-+  AS 1(P1, P6)  |        |    AS 5(P5)    |
                            +----------------+        +----------------+
P5' is the spoofed source prefix P5 by the attacker which is inside of
AS 2 or connected to AS 2 through other ASes.

     Figure 6: A scenario of the direct attacks by source address
                   spoofing within a customer cone.

   In Figure 6, the direct attack by source address spoofing takes place
   within AS 4's customer cone, where the attacker spoofs a source
   address (P5) and directly targets the victim's IP address (P1),
   overwhelming its network resources.  The arrows in Figure 6
   illustrate the commercial relationships between ASes.  AS 3 serves as
   the provider for AS 4 and AS 5, while AS 4 acts as the provider for
   AS 1, AS 2, and AS 5.  Additionally, AS 2 is the provider for AS 1.
   Suppose AS 1 and AS 4 have deployed inter-domain SAV, while the other
   ASes have not.

   If AS 4 deploys EFP-uRPF with algorithm A/B at its customer
   interfaces, it will allow packets with source addresses in P5 to
   originate from AS 1, AS 2, and AS 5.  Consequently, when AS 2 sends
   spoofing packets with source addresses in P5 to AS 4, AS 4 will
   improperly permit these packets, thus enabling the spoofing attacks
   to propagate.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 15]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   In scenarios like these, Strict uRPF, FP-uRPF, and VRF uRPF do not
   suffer from improper permit problems.  This is because these
   mechanisms enforce strict filtering rules that ensure packets with
   source addresses in P5 are only permitted to arrive from AS 5.

4.2.  SAV at Provider/Peer Interfaces

   SAV is used at provider/peer interfaces to validate traffic entering
   the customer cone, including both legitimate and spoofing traffic.
   To prevent packets with spoofed source addresses from the provider/
   peer AS, ACL-based ingress filtering and/or Loose uRPF can be
   deployed [nist].  In addition, source-based RTBH filtering can be
   used to remotely configure SAV rules.

   +--------------------+------------+---------------+
   |Traffic & Scenarios |ACL & S/RTBH|   Loose uRPF  |
   +----------+---------+------------+---------------+
   |Legitimate|   Any   |            |  Functioning  |
   |Traffic   |Scenarios|    High    |  as Expected  |
   +----------+---------+Operational +---------------+
   |Spoofing  |   RAP   |  Overhead  |               |
   |Traffic   +---------+            |Improper Permit|
   |          |   DAP   |            |               |
   +----------+---------+------------+---------------+
   S/RTBH: Source-based RTBH filtering.
   "RAP" represents a class of scenario called reflection attacks by
   source address spoofing from provider/peer AS.
   "DAP" represents a class of scenario called direct attacks by source
   address spoofing from provider/peer AS.
   "Functioning as Expected" represents the inter-domain SAV mechanism
   does not cause improper block for legitimate traffic or improper
   permit for spoofing traffic in the corresponding scenarios, and has
   low operational overhead.

      Figure 7: The gaps of ACL-based ingress filtering, source-based
       RTBH filtering, and Loose uRPF in the corresponding scenarios.

   Figure 7 summarizes the gaps of ACL-based ingress filtering, source-
   based RTBH filtering, and Loose uRPF for SAV at provider/peer
   interfaces in the corresponding scenarios.  ACL-based ingress
   filtering and source-based RTBH filtering effectively block spoofing
   traffic from the reflection attacks or direct attacks originating
   from provider/peer AS, while appropriately allowing legitimate
   traffic.  However, these methods may come with a high operational
   overhead.  On the other hand, Loose uRPF correctly permits legitimate
   traffic, but it can also mistakenly allow spoofing traffic to pass
   through.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 16]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   In the following, we expose the limitations of ACL-based ingress
   filtering, source-based RTBH filtering, and Loose uRPF for SAV at
   provider/peer interfaces in scenarios of source address spoofing
   attacks from provider/peer AS.  The source address spoofing attacks
   from provider/peer AS include reflection attacks from provider/peer
   AS (Section 4.2.1) and direct attacks from provider/peer AS
   (Section 4.2.2).

4.2.1.  Reflection Attacks

   Figure 8 depicts the scenario of reflection attacks by source address
   spoofing from provider/peer AS and is used to analyze the gaps of
   ACL-based ingress filtering, source-based RTBH filtering, and Loose
   uRPF below.

                                    +----------------+
                     Attacker(P1')+-+    AS 3(P3)    |
                                    +-+/\----+/\+----+
                                       /       \
                                      /         \
                                     /           \
                                    / (C2P/P2P)   \
                           +----------------+      \
                           |    AS 4(P4)    |       \
                           ++/\+--+/\+--+/\++        \
              P6[AS 1, AS 2] /     |      \           \
                   P2[AS 2] /      |       \           \
                           /       |        \           \
                          / (C2P)  |         \ P5[AS 5]  \ P5[AS 5]
          +----------------+       |          \           \
  Server+-+    AS 2(P2)    |       | P1[AS 1]  \           \
          +----------+/\+--+       | P6[AS 1]   \           \
              P6[AS 1] \           | NO_EXPORT   \           \
               P1[AS 1] \          |              \           \
               NO_EXPORT \         |               \           \
                          \ (C2P)  | (C2P)    (C2P) \     (C2P) \
                        +----------------+        +----------------+
                Victim+-+  AS 1(P1, P6)  |        |    AS 5(P5)    |
                        +----------------+        +----------------+
  P1' is the spoofed source prefix P1 by the attacker which is inside of
  AS 3 or connected to AS 3 through other ASes.

       Figure 8: A scenario of reflection attacks by source address
                     spoofing from provider/peer AS.

   In the case of Figure 8, the attacker spoofs the victim's IP address
   (P1) and sends requests to servers' IP address (P2) that respond to
   such requests.  The servers then send overwhelming responses back to

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 17]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   the victim, exhausting its network resources.  The arrows in Figure 8
   represent the commercial relationships between ASes.  AS 3 acts as
   the provider or lateral peer of AS 4 and the provider for AS 5, while
   AS 4 serves as the provider for AS 1, AS 2, and AS 5.  Additionally,
   AS 2 is the provider for AS 1.  Suppose AS 1 and AS 4 have deployed
   inter-domain SAV, while the other ASes have not.

   By applying ACL-based ingress filtering at the provider/peer
   interface of AS 4, the ACL rules can block any packets with spoofed
   source addresses from AS 3 in P1, effectively preventing reflection
   attacks.  However, this approach incurs heavy operational overhead,
   as it requires network operators to update the ACL rules promptly
   based on changes in prefixes or topology of AS 1 and AS 2.
   Otherwise, it may cause improper block of legitimate traffic or
   improper permit of spoofing traffic.

   Source-based RTBH filtering allows for the deployment of SAV rules on
   AS 1 and AS 4 remotely.  However, in order to avoid improper block or
   improper permit, the specified source addresses need to be updated in
   a timely manner, which incurs additional operational overhead.

   Loose uRPF can greatly reduce the operational overhead because it
   uses the local FIB as information source, and can adapt to changes in
   the network.  However, it can improperly permit spoofed packets.  In
   Figure 8, Loose uRPF is enabled at AS 4's provider/peer interface,
   while EFP-uRPF is enabled at AS 4's customer interfaces, following
   [RFC3704].  An attacker inside AS 3 or connected to it through other
   ASes may send packets with source addresses spoofing P1 to a server
   in AS 2 to attack the victim in AS 1.  As AS 3 lacks deployment of
   inter-domain SAV, the attack packets will reach AS 4's provider/peer
   interface.  With Loose uRPF, AS 4 cannot block the reflection attack
   packets at its provider/peer interface, and thus resulting in
   improper permit.

4.2.2.  Direct Attacks

   Conversely, Figure 9 showcases a scenario of direct attack by source
   address spoofing from provider/peer AS and is used to analyze the
   gaps of ACL-based ingress filtering, source-based RTBH filtering, and
   Loose uRPF below.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 18]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

                            +----------------+
             Attacker(P2')+-+    AS 3(P3)    |
                            +-+/\----+/\+----+
                               /       \
                              /         \
                             /           \
                            / (C2P/P2P)   \
                   +----------------+      \
                   |    AS 4(P4)    |       \
                   ++/\+--+/\+--+/\++        \
      P6[AS 1, AS 2] /     |      \           \
           P2[AS 2] /      |       \           \
                   /       |        \           \
                  / (C2P)  |         \ P5[AS 5]  \ P5[AS 5]
  +----------------+       |          \           \
  |    AS 2(P2)    |       | P1[AS 1]  \           \
  +----------+/\+--+       | P6[AS 1]   \           \
      P6[AS 1] \           | NO_EXPORT   \           \
       P1[AS 1] \          |              \           \
       NO_EXPORT \         |               \           \
                  \ (C2P)  | (C2P)    (C2P) \     (C2P) \
                +----------------+        +----------------+
        Victim+-+  AS 1(P1, P6)  |        |    AS 5(P5)    |
                +----------------+        +----------------+
  P2' is the spoofed source prefix P2 by the attacker which is inside of
  AS 3 or connected to AS 3 through other ASes.

    Figure 9: A scenario of direct attacks by source address spoofing
                          from provider/peer AS.

   In the case of Figure 9, the attacker spoofs another source address
   (P2) and directly targets the victim's IP address (P1), overwhelming
   its network resources.  The arrows in Figure 9 represent the
   commercial relationships between ASes.  AS 3 acts as the provider or
   lateral peer of AS 4 and the provider for AS 5, while AS 4 serves as
   the provider for AS 1, AS 2, and AS 5.  Additionally, AS 2 is the
   provider for AS 1.  Suppose AS 1 and AS 4 have deployed inter-domain
   SAV, while the other ASes have not.

   Similar to the scenario of reflection attacks by source address
   spoofing depicted in Figure 8, both ACL-based ingress filtering and
   Source-based RTBH filtering have high operational overhead for the
   scenario of direct attacks by source address spoofing from provider/
   peer AS shown in Figure 9.  Otherwise, they may cause improper block
   of legitimate traffic or improper permit of spoofing traffic.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 19]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   Also, Loose uRPF can improperly permit spoofed packets.  In Figure 9,
   Loose uRPF is enabled at AS 4's provider/peer interface, while EFP-
   uRPF is enabled at AS 4's customer interfaces, following [RFC3704].
   An attacker inside AS 3 or connected to it through other ASes may
   send packets with source addresses spoofing P2 and destimation
   addresses in P1 to directly attack the victim in AS 1.  As AS 3 lacks
   deployment of inter-domain SAV, the attack packets will reach AS 4's
   provider/peer interface.  With Loose uRPF, AS 4 cannot block the
   direct attack packets at its provider/peer interface, and thus
   resulting in improper permit.

5.  Problem Statement

  +--------+----------+---------+----------+-------+--------+----------+
  |Problems|    ACL   |  Strict |  Loose   |FP-uRPF|VRF uRPF|EFP-uRPF  |
  |        | & S/RTBH |  uRPF   |  uRPF    |       |        |          |
  +--------+----------+---------+----------+-------+--------+----------+
  |Improper|Not Exist |  Exist  |Not Exist |           Exist           |
  |Block   |          |(LPP, HP)|          |         (LPP, HP)         |
  +--------+----------+---------+----------+-------+--------+----------+
  |Improper|      Not Exist     |  Exist   |    Not Exist   |  Exist   |
  |Permit  |                    |(RAP, DAP)|                |(RAC, DAC)|
  +--------+----------+---------+----------+-------+--------+----------+
  |        |   Exist  |                                                |
  |  HOO   |   (Any   |                    Not Exist                   |
  |        |Scenarios)|                                                |
  +--------+----------+------------------------------------------------+
  S/RTBH: Source-based RTBH filtering, HOO: High Operational Overhead.
  "LPP" represents a class of scenario called limited propagation of
  prefixes.
  "HP" represents a class of scenario called hidden prefixes.
  "RAP" represents a class of scenario called reflection attacks by
  source address spoofing from provider/peer AS.
  "DAP" represents a class of scenario called direct attacks by source
  address spoofing from provider/peer AS.
  "RAC" represents a class of scenario called reflection attacks by
  source address spoofing within a customer cone.
  "DAC" represents a class of scenario called direct attacks by source
  address spoofing within a customer cone.

         Figure 10: The scenarios where existing inter-domain SAV
        mechanisms may have improper block problem for legitimate
      traffic, improper permit problem for spoofing traffic, or high
                          operational overhead.

   Based on the analysis above, we conclude that existing inter-domain
   SAV mechanisms exhibit limitations in asymmetric routing scenarios,
   leading to potential issues of improper block or improper permit.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 20]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   Additionally, these mechanisms can result in high operational
   overhead, especially when network routing undergoes dynamic changes.
   Figure 10 provides a comprehensive summary of scenarios where
   existing inter-domain SAV mechanisms may encounter issues, including
   instances of improper blocking of legitimate traffic, improper
   permitting of spoofing traffic, or high operational overhead.

   For ACL-based ingress filtering, network operators need to manually
   update ACL rules to adapt to network changes.  Otherwise, they may
   cause improper block or improper permit issues.  Manual updates
   induce high operational overhead, especially in networks with
   frequent policy and route changes.  Source-based RTBH filtering has
   the similar problem as ACL-based ingress filtering.

   Strict uRPF and Loose uRPF are automatic SAV mechanisms, thus they do
   not need any manual effort to adapt to network changes.  However,
   they have issues in scenarios with asymmetric routing.  Strict uRPF
   may cause improper block problems when an AS is multi-homed and
   routes are not symmetrically announced to all its providers.  This is
   because the local FIB may not include the asymmetric routes of the
   legitimate packets, and Strict uRPF only uses the local FIB to check
   the source addresses and incoming interfaces of packets.  Loose uRPF
   may cause improper permit problems and fail to prevent source address
   spoofing.  This is because it is oblivious to the incoming interfaces
   of packets.

   FP-uRPF and VRF uRPF improve Strict uRPF in multi-homing scenarios.
   However, they still have improper block issues in asymmetric routing
   scenarios.  For example, they may not handle the cases of limited
   propagation of prefixes.  These mechanisms use the local RIB to learn
   the source prefixes and their valid incoming interfaces.  But the RIB
   may not have all the prefixes with limited propagation and their
   permissible incoming interfaces.

   EFP-uRPF allows the prefixes from the same customer cone at all
   customer interfaces.  This solves the improper block problems of FP-
   uRPF and VRF uRPF in multi-homing scenarios.  However, this approach
   also compromises partial protection against spoofing from the
   customer cone.  EFP-uRPF may still have improper block problems when
   it does not learn legitimate source prefixes.  For example, hidden
   prefixes are not learned by EFP-uRPF.

   Finally, existing inter-domain SAV mechanisms cannot work in all
   directions (i.e. interfaces) of ASes to achieve effective SAV.
   Network operators need to carefully analyze the network environment
   and choose approapriate SAV mechansim for each interface.  This leads
   to additional operational and cognitive overhead, which can hinder
   the rate of adoption of inter-domain SAV.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 21]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

6.  Requirements for New Inter-domain SAV Mechanisms

   This section lists the requirements which can help bridge the
   technical gaps of existing inter-domain SAV mechanisms.  These
   requirements serve as the practical guidelines that can be met, in
   part or in full, by proposing new techniques.

6.1.  Accurate Validation

   The new inter-domain SAV mechanism SHOULD improve the validation
   accuracy in all directions of ASes over existing inter-domain SAV
   mechanisms, while working in incremental/partial deployment and
   providing necessary security guarantee.

6.1.1.  Improving Validation Accuracy over Existing Mechanisms

   It SHOULD avoid improper block and permit less spoofed traffic than
   existing inter-domain SAV mechanisms.  To avoid improper block, ASes
   that deploy the new inter-domain SAV mechanism SHOULD be able to
   acquire all the real data plane forwarding paths, which are the paths
   that the legitimate traffic goes through in the data plane.

   However, it may be hard to learn the real forwarding paths of
   prefixes exactly under some scenarios, such as asymmetric routing
   scenario and DSR scenario.  For such scenarios, it is crucial to
   minimize the set of acceptable paths while ensuring the inclusion of
   all real forwarding paths, thereby preventing improper block and
   minimizing improper permit.  Note that the acceptable paths are all
   the possible paths that the legitimate traffic may go through in the
   data plane, cover all the links at each level of customer-provider
   hierarchy, and MUST include all the real forwarding paths.  Reducing
   the set of acceptable paths means eliminating the paths that are not
   the real forwarding paths of the prefixes from the set.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 22]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

                             +----------------+
                             |    AS 3(P3)    |
                             +-+/\----+/\+----+
                                /       \
                               /         \
                              /           \
                             / (C2P)       \
                    +----------------+      \
                    |    AS 4(P4)    |       \
                    ++/\+--+/\+--+/\++        \
       P6[AS 1, AS 2] /     |      \           \
            P2[AS 2] /      |       \           \
                    /       |        \           \
                   / (C2P)  |         \ P5[AS 5]  \ P5[AS 5]
   +----------------+       |          \           \
   |    AS 2(P2)    |       | P1[AS 1]  \           \
   +----------+/\+--+       | P6[AS 1]   \           \
       P6[AS 1] \           | NO_EXPORT   \           \
        P1[AS 1] \          |              \           \
        NO_EXPORT \         |               \           \
                   \ (C2P)  | (C2P)    (C2P) \     (C2P) \
                 +----------------+        +----------------+
                 |  AS 1(P1, P6)  |        |    AS 5(P5)    |
                 +----------------+        +----------------+

       Figure 11: An example to illustrate accurate validation in all
                            directions of an AS.

   Multiple sources of SAV-related information, such as RPKI ROA objects
   and ASPA objects, and SAV-specific information from other ASes, can
   assist in reducing the set of acceptable paths.  Figure 11 is used as
   an example to illustrate how to avoid improper block and minimize
   improper permit in all directions of an AS based on different SAV
   information sources.  AS 3 is the provider of AS 4 and AS 5, while AS
   4 is the provider of AS 1, AS 2, and AS 5, and AS 2 is the provider
   of AS 1.  Assuming prefixes P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, and P6 are all the
   prefixes in the network.  Inter-domain SAV has been deployed by AS 1
   and AS 4, but not by other ASes.  Here, the focus is on how to
   conduct SAV in all directions of AS 4 when different SAV information
   sources are used.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 23]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   Additionally, since the source prefix ranges of the traffic entering
   the customer cone of AS 4 are not fully learned in the partial
   deployment scenario, SAV at provider/peer interfaces can use a
   blocklist.  For example, as shown in Figure 11, the traffic with
   source addresses in P5 may come from AS 5 or AS 3.  In contrast, SAV
   at customer interfaces for traffic going out of the customer cone can
   use an allowlist to allow the known prefixes of the customer cone at
   the corresponding customer interfaces and other unknown prefixes at
   all the customer interfaces.

   The followings show how to generate SAV rules based on the SAV-
   related information from different SAV information sources to avoid
   improper block and reduce as much improper permit as possible.

   *  If only the RIB is available, AS 4 can conduct SAV towards its
      neighboring ASes as follows like [RFC8704]: SAV towards AS 1
      permits the prefixes P1 and P6, SAV towards AS 2 permits the
      prefixes P1, P2, and P6, SAV towards AS 5 permits the prefix P5,
      and SAV towards AS 3 does not block any prefix.

   *  When both RPKI ROA objects and ASPA objects are deployed by AS 1
      and AS 4, AS 4 can conduct SAV towards its neighboring ASes as
      follows like [bar-sav]: SAV towards AS 1 permits the prefixes P1
      and P6, SAV towards AS 2 permits the prefixes P1, P2, and P6, SAV
      towards AS 5 permits the prefix P5, and SAV towards AS 3 blocks
      the prefixes P1, P2, and P6.

   *  Moreover, if SAV-specific information that exactly contains all
      the real data plane forwarding paths of prefixes is accessible,
      SAV rules can be refined.  AS 4 can conduct SAV towards its
      neighboring ASes as follows: SAV towards AS 1 permits only P1.
      SAV towards AS 2 permits the prefixes P2 and P6, while SAV towards
      AS 5 permits the prefix P5 and SAV towards AS 3 blocks the
      prefixes P1, P2, and P6.

   It is evident that, in a partial deployment scenario, more accurate
   SAV-related information can effectively achieve 0% improper block and
   significantly minimize improper permit.

6.1.2.  Working in Incremental/Partial Deployment

   The new inter-domain SAV mechanism SHOULD NOT assume pervasive
   adoption and SHOULD provide effective protection for source addresses
   when it is partially deployed in the Internet.  Not all AS border
   routers can support the new SAV mechanism at once, due to various
   constraints such as capabilities, versions, or vendors.  The new SAV
   mechanism should not be less effective in protecting all directions
   of ASes under partial deployment than existing mechanisms.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 24]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

6.1.3.  Providing Necessary Security Guarantee

   The new inter-domain SAV mechanism SHOULD secure the communicated
   SAV-specific information between ASes and prevent malicious ASes from
   generating forged information.

6.2.  Automatic Update

   The new inter-domain SAV mechanism SHOULD update SAV rules and detect
   the changes of SAV-specific information automatically while
   guaranteeing convergence.

6.2.1.  Reducing Operational Overhead

   The new inter-domain SAV mechanism MUST be able to adapt to dynamic
   networks and asymmetric routing scenarios automatically, instead of
   relying on manual update.  At least, it SHOULD have less operational
   overhead than ACL-based ingress filtering and Source-based RTBH
   filtering.

6.2.2.  Guaranteeing Convergence

   The new inter-domain SAV mechanism SHOULD promptly detect the network
   changes and launch the convergence process quickly.  It is essential
   that the new inter-domain SAV mechanism converges towards accurate
   SAV rules in a proper manner, effectively reducing improper block and
   improper permit throughout the whole convergence process.

7.  Inter-domain SAV Scope

   The new inter-domain SAV mechanisms should work in the same scenarios
   as existing ones.  Generally, it includes all IP-encapsulated
   scenarios:

   *  Native IP forwarding: This includes both global routing table
      forwarding and CE site forwarding of VPN.

   *  IP-encapsulated Tunnel (IPsec, GRE, SRv6, etc.): In this scenario,
      we focus on the validation of the outer layer IP address.

   *  Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

   Scope does not include:

   *  Non-IP packets: This includes MPLS label-based forwarding and
      other non-IP-based forwarding.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 25]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   In addition, the new inter-domain SAV mechanisms should not modify
   data plane packets.  Existing architectures or protocols or
   mechanisms can be inherited by the new SAV mechanism to achieve
   better SAV effectiveness.

8.  Security Considerations

   SAV rules can be generated based on route information (FIB/RIB) or
   non-route information.  If the information is poisoned by attackers,
   the SAV rules will be false.  Legitimate packets may be dropped
   improperly or malicious traffic with spoofed source addresses may be
   permitted improperly.  Route security should be considered by routing
   protocols.  Non-route information, such as RPKI ASPA objects, should
   also be protected by corresponding mechanisms or infrastructure.  If
   SAV mechanisms or protocols require exchanging specific information
   between ASes, some considerations on the avoidance of message
   alteration or message injection are needed to propose.

   The SAV procedure referred in this document modifies no field of
   packets.  So, security considerations on data plane are not in the
   scope of this document.

9.  IANA Considerations

   This document does not request any IANA allocations.

10.  Contributors

   Lancheng Qin
   Zhongguancun Laboratory
   Beijing, China
   Email: qinlc@zgclab.edu.cn

   Nan Geng
   Huawei
   Beijing, China
   Email: gengnan@huawei.com

11.  References

11.1.  Normative References

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8174>.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 26]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2119>.

   [RFC3704]  Baker, F. and P. Savola, "Ingress Filtering for Multihomed
              Networks", BCP 84, RFC 3704, DOI 10.17487/RFC3704, March
              2004, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3704>.

   [RFC8704]  Sriram, K., Montgomery, D., and J. Haas, "Enhanced
              Feasible-Path Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding", BCP 84,
              RFC 8704, DOI 10.17487/RFC8704, February 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8704>.

   [RFC2827]  Ferguson, P. and D. Senie, "Network Ingress Filtering:
              Defeating Denial of Service Attacks which employ IP Source
              Address Spoofing", BCP 38, RFC 2827, DOI 10.17487/RFC2827,
              May 2000, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2827>.

   [RFC5210]  Wu, J., Bi, J., Li, X., Ren, G., Xu, K., and M. Williams,
              "A Source Address Validation Architecture (SAVA) Testbed
              and Deployment Experience", RFC 5210,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5210, June 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5210>.

   [RFC4364]  Rosen, E. and Y. Rekhter, "BGP/MPLS IP Virtual Private
              Networks (VPNs)", RFC 4364, DOI 10.17487/RFC4364, February
              2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4364>.

   [RFC5635]  Kumari, W. and D. McPherson, "Remote Triggered Black Hole
              Filtering with Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (uRPF)",
              RFC 5635, DOI 10.17487/RFC5635, August 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5635>.

   [RFC6811]  Mohapatra, P., Scudder, J., Ward, D., Bush, R., and R.
              Austein, "BGP Prefix Origin Validation", RFC 6811,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6811, January 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6811>.

   [RFC4786]  Abley, J. and K. Lindqvist, "Operation of Anycast
              Services", BCP 126, RFC 4786, DOI 10.17487/RFC4786,
              December 2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4786>.

   [RFC7094]  McPherson, D., Oran, D., Thaler, D., and E. Osterweil,
              "Architectural Considerations of IP Anycast", RFC 7094,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7094, January 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7094>.

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 27]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

11.2.  Informative References

   [intra-domain-ps]
              "Source Address Validation in Intra-domain Networks Gap
              Analysis, Problem Statement, and Requirements", 2024,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-savnet-intra-
              domain-problem-statement/>.

   [manrs]    MANRS, "MANRS Implementation Guide", 2023,
              <https://www.manrs.org/netops/guide/antispoofing/>.

   [isoc]     Internet Society, "Addressing the challenge of IP
              spoofing", 2015,
              <https://www.internetsociety.org/resources/doc/2015/
              addressing-the-challenge-of-ip-spoofing/>.

   [nist]     NIST, "Resilient Interdomain Traffic Exchange: BGP
              Security and DDos Mitigation", 2019,
              <https://www.nist.gov/publications/resilient-interdomain-
              traffic-exchange-bgp-security-and-ddos-mitigation>.

   [urpf]     Cisco Systems, Inc., "Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding
              Enhancements for the Internet Service Provider-Internet
              Service Provider Network Edge", 2005,
              <https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/about/security/
              intelligence/urpf.pdf>.

   [bar-sav]  NIST, Akamai, "Source Address Validation Using BGP
              UPDATEs, ASPA, and ROA (BAR-SAV)", 2024,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-sidrops-bar-
              sav/>.

Acknowledgements

   Many thanks to Jared Mauch, Barry Greene, Fang Gao, Anthony Somerset,
   Yuanyuan Zhang, Igor Lubashev, Alvaro Retana, Joel Halpern, Aijun
   Wang, Michael Richardson, Li Chen, Gert Doering, Mingxing Liu, John
   O'Brien, Roland Dobbins, etc. for their valuable comments on this
   document.

Authors' Addresses

   Dan Li
   Tsinghua University
   Beijing
   China
   Email: tolidan@tsinghua.edu.cn

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 28]
Internet-Draft    Inter-domain SAVNET Problem Statement   September 2024

   Jianping Wu
   Tsinghua University
   Beijing
   China
   Email: jianping@cernet.edu.cn

   Libin Liu
   Zhongguancun Laboratory
   Beijing
   China
   Email: liulb@zgclab.edu.cn

   Mingqing Huang
   Zhongguancun Laboratory
   Beijing
   China
   Email: huangmq@mail.zgclab.edu.cn

   Kotikalapudi Sriram
   USA National Institute of Standards and Technology
   Gaithersburg, MD
   United States of America
   Email: ksriram@nist.gov

Li, et al.                Expires 13 March 2025                [Page 29]